Olaf Rupp - AuldLangSyne / Magda Mayas & Anthea Caddy - Schatten reviewed at paris transatlantic by John Eyles

Olaf Rupp
AULDLANGSYNE
Dromos / Gligg

Magda Mayas / Anthea Caddy
SCHATTEN
Dromos

At first glance, the two latest additions to the catalogue of Lisbon-based Dromos Records are barely recognisable as CDs. Guitarist Olaf Rupp's AuldLangSyne is housed in a large irregular hexagonal sleeve with a front cover painting by Antonio Poppe and leather back cover, and each copy includes a different Poppe engraving. Access to contents is via a slit in the leather just long enough to get a CD through. Schatten, by pianist Magda Mayas and cellist Anthea Caddy, comes in a tactile rich blue membrane made of ink skin designed by Nádia Duvall. And Rupp, Mayas and Caddy ensure the quality of the music is commensurate with its packaging.

AuldLangSyne's nine tracks run for just over an hour and were recorded by Rupp in Berlin in 2010. Although a frequent and successful collaborator, he's arguably at his best playing solo, on both acoustic and electric guitar, and maintains a cracking pace, even when playing comparatively simply and deliberately as at the start of the opening track "Every" (the track titles form the phrase "every dog has his day and a good dog just might have two days"). On acoustic guitar, the musical tumult includes rapidly strummed chords and arpeggios interwoven with harmonic and melodic strands, while sections of the longest track, "His", are highly reminiscent of flamenco. On the electric instrument, notably on "Day", the technique is similar, but bent notes, sustain and variations in volume add variety. Rupp's brain works as fast as his fingers, and he plays with impressive precision even at the fastest of tempi, but the music never sounds like mere technical display: each piece is unique and all are equally satisfying.

Schatten was recorded at Amann Studios, Vienna, in March 2010. Pianist Magda Mayas is such a strong individual stylist that it sometimes feels as if she's dominating her playing partners (as was the case on the recent Great Waitress album Lucid (Splitrec) with accordionist Monika Brooks and clarinettist Laura Altman), but with cellist Anthea Caddy it's a partnership of well-matched equals. As always, Mayas plays the whole instrument, producing sounds that are recognisably piano along with others made by banging and scraping the frame or the strings. In similar fashion, Caddy produces an impressive array of sounds from the deepest darkest arco tones to high pitched screeches. Both musicians are adept at adjusting and evolving pitch, tempo and timbre, sometimes contrasting completely with one another, sometimes both going in the same direction, as in the ominously dark and moody rumblings halfway through the opening track. The recording quality is first rate, and, clocking in at just over 38 minutes, Schatten delivers quality over quantity, and passes the key test of a good album – it leaves you hungry for more.

- John Eyles in Paris Transatlantic Winter 2011 Issue

"Schatten" Review by Richard Pinnell

If I am honest I am not really in the mood for writing about music tonight, but as Julie is staying with her Mum for now after their loss I have little to do here other than try and get on with things, and so I have listened a few times to a nice new CD on the Portugese Dromos label by the Berlin improvisational duo of Magda Mayas (piano) and Anthea Caddy (cello). Dromos releases have always arrived in innovative packaging, but this one might be my favourite yet, with each of the 250 copies being packed in handmade splodges of blue crépe paper and wax, each one individual and somehow simultaneously very ugly and quite beautiful. The disc within contains three beautifully recorded studio tracks of dense textural improvisation. The general feel is one that falls neatly midway between the various poles of improvisation’s current trends. It is always very active and energetic, perhaps even aggressively so here and there, but while silence plays little to no part in the music it also doesn’t feel unnecessarily chattery. The thickness of the sound, which is all acoustically created, is down to the way the musicians work here to build looming clouds of sound rather than itchy, scratchy conversations. Mayas’ playing is more percussive than melodic, working in and around the body of the prepared instrument as well as bowing, tapping and plucking at the strings. Often her sound is deeply resonant. Rolling, booming shudders of low register sound match lighter plucks and tones moment for moment. Caddy’s cello varies in intensity as well, often flourishing into extremely wild, wrenching sections of bowing match up to Mayas’ more violently hammering moments just as the delicacy the cello also comes through at other times.

The album is named Schatten, which translates (I think) to Shade- a quite fitting title given the frequently dark, claustrophobic feeling to the music. The musicianship involved here, highlighted in the way the two instruments feed off of one another and respond to one another rather than merely sit adjacent underlines the improvised music traditions at work here, but this CD stands for me as another good example of a currently very interesting area in improv right now- music that focusses texture and carefully chosen sounds but often does so in a talkative, far from reductionist manner, with every sound mattering, nothing there without good reason but also with no fear of making openly expressive music. The heaving, muscular interchanges of bowed strings and thunderous hammering piano that rise up throughout In the shadows lay, the second track here are particularly wonderful, stirring up this old listener for sure, making the hairs stand on end as the music almost abuses the careful listener.

The mix of the delicate and fragile with the dense and heavy is reflected in the CD’s packaging as the thin whispering crepe paper is enveloped in the thick, gloopy wax. That sensation of some kind of oppressive force weighing down on the music, pushing it away from the simply tasteful and into more uncomfortable, yet ultimately rewarding areas remain present throughout what is a really very engaging album indeed. At times this music gets extremely urgent, even angrily so here and there, and right now I can empathise with such an approach. Listening here tonight, letting the urgency of the music unravel around me in an almost violent way felt a little cathartic. For all the beauty of life and the people we meet along the way there are always dark, uncomfortable moments, and sometimes music helps us sort such occasions out. A very fine album then, available here.

- Richard Pinnell on The Watchful Ear

Magda Mayas & Anthea Caddy - Schatten Review by Stef Gijssels

Magda Mayas & Anthea Caddy - Schatten (Dromos Records, 2011) ****

The first thing that strikes you with this album is the unusual artwork by Nádia Duvall, with all 250 covers being handmade of crepe paper and wax, a combination of different materials, light and heavy, light and dark, and somewhat unpredictable and fragile, all illustrating the nature of the music quite well.

Schatten brings the interplay between Mayas on piano and Anthea Caddy on cello, offering a similar minimalist approach, yet somewhat darker and ominous, with heavier sounds and more percussive effects, which creates a totally different dynamic to the music. The sonic textures are all about timbre and space and interaction, and even if at moments it is hard to identify what or who the source is of the sounds you hear, the result is quite captivating.

© stef in http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/